We were sitting in the hospital waiting for the doctors to come and tell us something, anything! I just kept on thinking about how it was all my fault that she was in the hospital in the first place. I should have just stayed home. I agreed to go to the ice rink, but if I hadn't-

"ALEX!"

I snapped out of my black hole of guilt and looked for the source of the sound. It came from my annoying little brother, Jace.

"What?" I asked, exasperated.

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes," he said.

"Sorry, what do you need?" I questioned.

"Have you called mom yet?" It was more of a statement than a question coming from him.

"Oh, shoot no I haven't. I'll go do that now," I replied, I softened a little bit.

I went outside and pressed the call button

I took a deep breath and panicked anyways, "Ihadnoideawhattodowecalled911andthey- cameandgotherbutthenshehadasezuireandwearewaitingatthehospital"

"Slow down honey, what's going on?" my mom said.

"Maddie was coughing up blood and she was throwing up. I don't know what to do. We are at the hospital," I said.

I didn't hear anything from her or a while. Then, I could hear her sobs through the phone, "I'll be there soon, okay? Just hang tight." She hung up.

It was 10 minutes later when she showed up. She walked over silently and took a seat next to me. We had been there, waiting, for 37 minutes. The doctors hadn't said anything. We hadn't seen anyone. Not any doctors, visitors, or even nurses. I was starting to get worried. I got up and began pacing the floor. Another 20 minutes passed. A door opened. A doctor walked towards us. Mom and Jace got up.

"Hello, I am Dr. Ely. I was put in charge of your daughter's case," she smiled.

My mom's voice caught, "How, how is she?"

"Why don't you and see for yourself. She is conscious and talking. I am going to say, we can't find anything physically wrong with her. There was no reason for her to cough up blood or have a seizure like that. I'm going to give you some prescriptions for her, for her seizures, and have her come back in another week or so. We can get her checked out and see if anything pops up. Does that sound okay?" she looked grave.

Mom couldn't speak, so I did, "That sounds fine. What room is she in?"

She pointed to a room down the hall. I practically ran. I opened the door, there she was smiling, happy, it seemed as though nothing had happened. As if the world was right again.

"Hey Alex! I remembered something! It was that one day when we were at the beach, we were walking around and it started pouring rain. We weren't there for swimming though. We didn't care. We got soaked and ran around like crazy people jumping in puddles and it was so much fun! We got so many weird looks..." she looked so excited.

"That was a really fun day, wasn't it?" I replied.

She laughed, then a frown took dominance on her face, "I also remember a girl. She had long red hair, brown eyes, and freckles covered her face. I remembered her when I was first in the hospital." Her nose wrinkled up at the memory.

I laughed, "That's Ruby. She's been blowing up your phone, my phone, Jace's phone, and mom's phone asking about you. She's your best friend. I can go call her if you want. Tell her to come here. Maybe get her to stop blowing up our phones..."

She nodded, "Yeah, I'd like that."

I walked out to the hallway. Mom and Jace were waiting out there. Mom gave me a hug.

"We were waiting for you to be done. I know you're close with her," mom said.

"Yeah, she remembered a couple of things. She also remembered Ruby. She wanted me to call her. Get her to come here. I guess she was curious as to whom her best friend might be. She remembered another day as well. It was when we went to the beach and it was pouring rain."

I walked away and pulled my phone out. I called Ruby. When she answers I was bombarded with so many questions I just started laughing.

"I can't understand you, Ruby. You are talking a mile a minute. Why don't you slow down."

She replied, "How is she and why haven't you been answering your phones?"

"You can ask her how she is if you come to the hospital. Also, we have been a little busy with her coming home with amnesia," I stated.

She sounded horrified, "I'll be there as quickly as I can."

I walked back inside and took a seat and waited for my mom and brother to be done talking with Maddie. While I was sitting there I got sucked back into the inescapable vortex of guilt, I dozed off. I must have been sleeping for a while because when I woke up, Ruby was sitting next to me and she was crying. She must have already spoken to Maddie.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked.

"She doesn't remember me. She doesn't remember anything at all. She said it's like there's a missing puzzle piece to her whole life but she just can't find it. What if that piece is gone forever?" she cried.

I hugged her and we cried. We cried for a long time. Later I dropped her off at her house and talked with her mom. I don't really remember any of it, I guess after the second hospital visit, the reality of her amnesia set in. It was like a punch in the gut. I pulled over and started bawling. I couldn't stop. I probably would have never stopped if not for the angry texts from my mother. I looked at my phone. The messages from her consisted of: WHERE RU?, ALEX GRACE!!!!, ANSWER ME OR YOULL BE GROUNDED, WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU GET BACK TO THE HOUSE NOW!!!!, IVE CALLED YOU MULTIPLE TIMES, and WHY ARENT YOU ANSWERING?!?!?!?!!?!? Nobody wants to argue with Godzilla. So, I drove home.

When I got home I got yelled at. A lot. It mostly was her just worrying about me being gone for an hour. In a snowstorm. It's really not that big of a deal. Nobody was dying, nobody was dead. There was nothing that was seriously wrong. I wasn't gone for that long. Long story short, I was grounded. That meant I didn't get to drive my car. She will literally take my tires off. I had to take the bus to school. I had to get a ride from my mom. No friends houses, no nothing. I'll just talk to her in the morning. Maybe she'll be more reasonable then. Or maybe not.